2012 Formula One Season

[hopeful traveller]

Yet another faux pas or it is "for sure" this time...

Schumacher retires from Formula One™. I don't think that will be the end of him though and I think, like in 2006, he was pushed out. Back then they'd just signed Raikkonen and it would have been very difficult to get rid of Massa. Now, Hamilton has shoved Schumacher out of Mercedes.

So much for the "all-German" team.

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/new ... retirement

Here's Martin Brundle's view on it:

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/new ... retirement

Oh, and #goodgrammarsaveslives.

[tubeguru]

Do you have to append that hashtag to everything you type everywhere on the internet?

[Root]

The Japanese Grand Prix is over. After a dramatic start, I thought it was a little disappointing, but that's probably due to the dominance of the winning driver. The championship battle seems to have turned into a two-horse race.

My friend Matthew Underwood beat all of us with his predictions. He was the only player to score over 100 points. Hopeful traveller's lead at the top has grown a little. It's interesting that the players with the best overall scores are those who entered one set of picks for the whole season and have not updated them since. I think in many other seasons, that would not be the case, but this season has been so unpredictable that it hasn't been much use to take previous results into consideration when making new picks. That was definitely the case for the first half of the season, though it is perhaps less that way now.

It is only one week until the Korean GP, which is another early start, so get your picks in by the end of Thursday. I'll post a reminder, as usual.

[tubeguru]

The Japanese Grand Prix is over. After a dramatic start, I thought it was a little disappointing, but that's probably due to the dominance of the winning driver. The championship battle seems to have turned into a two-horse race.

I disagree. Alonso doesn't have the car to beat Vettel now. With Alonso's retirement the championship has been more or less handed to Vettel.

[Root]

I'm not so sure about that. Massa had enough pace for second place; quite far behind Vettel, admittedly, but considering how much worse Massa has fared than his team-mate this season, I think that car in Alonso's hands could match Vettel's. Also, what's to say Vettel isn't going to retire at the next race?

If I had to put my money on one of the two drivers, it would be Vettel, but it's by no means a sure bet.

[Root]

That's Korea done and dusted, then. I can sum up the race thus: zzzzzzzz. The championship is looking more and more like Vettel's now. Three in a row would be some achievement.

The winner of the round was GV27, a guy I know from another forum. The whole round was pretty low-scoring. I've adjusted the Mean row in the overall standings table in the spreadsheet to ignore the highest and lowest scores in each round. That should make it a better reflection of how predictable the races actually were, as it ignores anyone who might have - just throwing out a completely random example here - written a BASIC program to pick his drivers at random. If you want to see the "pure" mean score, it's still available in the individual round score tables.

India next, in two weeks' time.

[hopeful traveller]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIglIxLn ... h_response

Funny. It also gives you a chance to listen to some snippets of the BBC's **** commentary...

[Root]

Remember to enter picks for the Indian Grand Prix, which starts tomorrow.

[tubeguru]

Would anyone care to argue with me that this season is more or less over?

[hopeful traveller]

Nope. One non-finish for Vettel and the championship is back in the open. Alonso was mighty at Abu Dhabi last year, the new track in the US is anyone's guess, and Brazil is so short that one lock-up in qualifying could cost you five or six places. See Raikkonen, 2005.

[tubeguru]

Nope.

So you don't wish to argue with me? So I'm right?

[hopeful traveller]

Nope.

So you don't wish to argue with me? So I'm right?

I don't wish to argue with you, but you're wrong.

[tubeguru]

Nope.

So you don't wish to argue with me? So I'm right?

I don't wish to argue with you, but you're wrong.

How can you possibly tell me I'm wrong when neither of us know how it will end?

[tubeguru]

Anyway, enough of this silliness.

I just worked out that if Vettel finishes the next two races in first place, with Alonso second, then he will be champion with a race to go (he will be 27 points ahead). If Alonso comes second to him at the next race then Vettel will be 20 points ahead with two races to go. Alonso needs to start finishing ahead of Vettel, and fast.

[Root]

I didn't watch the Indian Grand Prix, because I'm on holiday, but the extremely high scores suggest it was a very predictable race. The average was the highest for any race this season, and if I recall correctly, the winning score of 171 beat any from this season as well as the last two (Scrxisi got 170 points two years ago when it was still being run by Motorsport). It was my girlfriend Kuroto who got that score. I thought I had done really well but ended up in only seventh place! Hopeful traveller's lead has come down somewhat but looks pretty comfortable with only three rounds remaining.

One week until Abu Dhabi.